STORMVILLE – Violence inside the walls of the maximum-security Green Haven Correctional Facility is at an all time high and the state must do something to curb it, the union representing corrections officers said Tuesday.
Chris Moreau, the regional director of the New York State Corrections Officers PBA, said inmate on officer and inmate on inmate violence across the state prison system is up despite inmate population declining.
Green Haven is on lockdown as a search goes on for weapons, he said.
“Here are some facts. As a baseline, the New York State inmate population has dropped from just under 55,000 in 2012 to just over 34,000 in 2020,” he said. “With that in mind, assaults on staff are up from 524 incidents in 2012 to 1,047 incidents in 2020. That is a 100 percent increase with 20,000 less inmates in the system.”
NYSCOPBA is also highly critical of new HALT legislation that limits the amount of time an incarcerated person can spend in segregated housing to 15 days and defines and reduces the number of disciplinary infractions eligible for segregated confinement, and exempts certain vulnerable populations including the young, elderly, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and persons with serious mental illness.
Moreau called the HALT law “a false narrative” and said it severely limits the ability of corrections officers to do their job and keep the peace inside the walls of the prisons.
He said the union is fed up with officers and civilian employees being attacked and in some cases, severely injured.
(c) Mid-Hudson News Network
